And I wondered if indeed Genieve’s sweet soul did not by some magnetism
of attraction draw down a band of bright spirits whose heavenly looks
wuz reflected upon her own, and if indeed a glow from the heavens she
tried to picture to the old black woman might not be reflected dimly
into her poor old heart.
[Illustration: “WHEREFOAH, BREDREN, LET US PRAY.”]
But we see through a glass darkly; we may not see clearly into the
beauties and wonders of the Belovéd City.
Genieve stayed and rendered all the assistance she could. She stayed as
long as she wuz needed.
But as soon as the news got out that Aunt Clo wuz dead, a crowd of her
relations, near and distant, come in and took possession of the cottage
and begun preparations for an elaborate funeral.
A colored minister wuz sent for, and he preached a long sermon in which
her virtues wuz held up as a pattern, and her sudden death as a warnin’
for ’em all to be ready for “de Master’s call, which might come in de
night time, or in de heat and burden of de day, but wuz shuah to come.
Shuah, young, careless girl; shuah, gay, happefyin’ young man, for de
trumpet must sound, and de dead must go at de bugle call of de Reapeh.
“He reaps de flowehs of de gahden,” sez he, pintin’ to the grave of
Belle Fanchon, which wuz not fur from the cabin-door.
“He reaps de flowehs in all deir beauty, an’ de ripe grain an’ de
wheat. Dis wheat we lay in de grave to-day, knowin’ dat de incorruption
will rise up incorruptible, an’ de glory will come up glorious, an’ we
shall all see it in de twinklin’ of de eye—an’ wherefoah, bredren, let
us pray.”
And he knelt down and offered up a prayer full of faith, and pathos,
and the wise ignorance of his childlike race.
Rising up from his knees, he directed the mourners to pass in front of
the coffin and view the remains, which they did with loud groanings and
many tears and exclamations of grief.
Then the coffin wuz closed, and the minister stood up in front of it
and sez:
“Christians, fall into line.”
And the church-members silently fell into line two by two till they wuz
all in their places.
Then he sez, “Sinners, fall into line.”
And the irreligious came forward jest as calmly and took their places,
and the procession moved off, and Aunt Clo wuz carried away to her last
sleep, in a little colored graveyard some mile and a half away.
I told Josiah about it after I got home; I sez:
“The good and the bad always foller on after every departed friend; but
I never see ’em sorted out so careful before, and I never see such a
calm willingness to be put amongst the goats as I see there.”
“Wall,” sez he, “they knew they wuz goats, so what wuz the use of
kickin’?”
“Wall,” sez I, “I have seen white folks lots of times that must have
known they wuz goats, but they didn’t love to be sorted out on the left
side, and no money could have made ’em walk up and fall into a sinner’s
line.”
Sez he, “If they be sinners, why can’t they own up to it? I would if I
wuz a sinner.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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